


Definition of Romance

by gryvon



Category: Love Mode
Genre: Community: springkink, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-07-05
Updated: 2007-07-05
Packaged: 2017-10-13 07:22:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/134490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gryvon/pseuds/gryvon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Katsuki and Jin's relationship doesn't follow the usual conventions.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Definition of Romance

"Katsuki, there's someone up front is asking for you." The way Toori was looking at him said Katsuki wasn't going to like it.

Katsuki closed his locker with a frown. "It isn't Homuraki-san again, is it?" If it was someone they knew, Toori usually had nicknames for them. Seiichi was 'your sempai' and Jin was 'the wolf'. When it was people he knew Katsuki didn't want to see, Toori didn't call they anything.

"Sorry."

Katsuki swore. "Can you tell him I'm off today?"

Toori gave him that pitying look. It was a lot like the look Seiichi gave him whenever they were at the bar and Jin's name came up. "I think he saw you come back here."

"Shit." Katsuki resisted the urge to pace. Closing his eyes he took a deep breath and then glanced at himself in the mirror. His uniform was still perfectly in place, his hair unruly but acceptable. There was nothing Katsuki wanted more than to be able to punch Homuraki in the face, but if he did that the owner would fire him in an instant. Katsuki would put up with just about anything if it kept him his job.

Steeling himself, Katsuki walked out of the locker room like nothing was wrong. He couldn't quite bring himself to pasting on a fake smile, but he could at least keeps his face straight and not scowl at the bastard.

"Ah! There you are." Homuraki was indeed waiting for him, right at the limit between the guest's area and employee's only section. The hallway was vacant, the employees were either in the back or out on the floor, and guests only came back here to use the restrooms. Or, in Homuraki's case, to stalk employees that they'd started to fancy.

"Here!" Katsuki had intended to just walk past Homuraki but something bright and red was shoved in his face before he could take two steps. Katsuki quickly grabbed it before Homuraki accidentally smacked him in the face with it... and suddenly found himself holding onto a bouquet of roses.

The strangeness of it was enough to keep Katsuki from lashing out on the spot.

"I'm glad you like them." Homuraki smiled. He wasn't sure how Homuraki had gotten like from not wanting to be smacked in the face.

No one had ever given him flowers before. He'd sent them, but never received them. It was strangely touching in a way that, if Homuraki had been anyone but himself, Katsuki would have found romantic.

Homuraki leaned forward, smiling like a shark that had spotted a particularly slow and tasty-looking fish, and kissed Katsuki on the cheek. "Expect me to be more forward from now on."

Katsuki belatedly realized that Homuraki was walking away before Katsuki could tell him off. "No, I...." The rest of the sentence died before he could get it out. 'I have a lover', he wanted to say. The guests could never know about him and Jin, but beyond that... he didn't think of Jin as his lover. He was in love with Jin. Jin wasn't in love with him, but they fucked sometimes and he occasionally showed some fondness for Katsuki.

"It's okay," Homuraki was looking at him again with that damn smug smile, like he thought Katsuki was just playing shy, "I won't tell your boss. Don't worry."

That was the least of Katsuki's worries, but before his brain managed to work out 'I have someone I'm in love with already', Homuraki had already walked away.

"Fuck!" The roses went in the first garbage can he found. He stalked to his apartment, fowl mood out in full as soon as he was on the employee elevator and out of the sight of any guests. He changed out of his uniform with far more stomping around and noise than was even remotely necessary, but it felt good to let of a little steam.

Going to Jin's was out of the question – he was scheduled to be with a client until later in the night, which left one option.

Five drinks later and he'd forgotten about Homuraki. By the seventh, Seiichi had joined him and his thoughts had turned back to his usual reason for coming down to the bar and getting piss-drunk.

Katsuki looked up at Seiichi with watery eyes. "Why do you think Jin doesn't love me?"

Seiichi exchanged a look with the bartender and they both sighed.

"Are you sure he doesn't love you?"

Katsuki sniffed. A few stray tears were already starting to roll down his cheeks. "But... but... but he never buys me flowers or takes me out to dinner! It's like he doesn't want to do anything that might mean we're in a relationship, he just fucks me and makes fun of me." Katsuki let his head fall onto his arms as the tears started to fall for real. "Homuraki bought me flowers and I don't even like him."

The silence at their end of the bar was broken only by Katsuki's sniffling.

"Who's Homuraki?"

More drinks followed and by the tenth he couldn't stand straight, let alone pay attention to what was going on around him. His head hurt from crying, and his stomach hurt from drinking too much and not eating dinner. Someone carried him home, and it felt like he was floating, all the way through the halls of Blue Boy and up to bed. He heard two voices talking and they sounded far away. It was dark where he was and the voices – Jin and Seiichi, his mind puzzled out after a minute – came from a light that seemed far off. They talked and then the door slammed, taking the light with it.

Katsuki dozed, too ill to sleep but he dreamed. He dreamed that Jin hated him and threw him out of Blue Boy. He dreamed that Homuraki was a shark, chasing him through a swimming pool while Jin sat on the diving board and laughed at him.

"Wake up."

The lights flicked on and Katsuki groaned, curling away into the blankets as his head pounded. Jin's hand on his shoulder forced him flat on his back and then something large temporarily blocked out the light. Red and green showered around him.

Slowly, Katsuki sat up and stared at the bed around him. Roses lay scattered on the white sheets – more than a dozen, maybe more than two dozen if Katsuki was counting right. He picked one up, rubbing his thumb along the stem. No thorns.

"There," Jin was staring down at him with his usual frown, "have your flowers."

Katsuki stared at the flowers, then at Jin. A smile crept across his face and he couldn't help but laugh. Mentally, he revised what he'd thought about Homuraki. A bouquet of flowers wasn't romantic. This was romance, the only kind of romance he needed.

Reaching up with one hand, Katsuki pulled Jin down in bed with him.

"Thank you," he said between kisses, followed by, "I love you."

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to follow me on [tumblr](http://gryvon.tumblr.com/) or [twitter](https://twitter.com/gryvon). Prompts can be submitted [here](http://gryvon.com/uncategorized/prompt-me/). Check out my [blog](http://jennahale.com) and [writing website](http://gryvon.com).


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